Launceston City achieved something they’ve never done since the reintroduction of the Tasmanian State League by winning four consecutive matches and making it five games unbeaten to rocket from the bottom of the table at the start of July into fifth spot.
City surge continues as Zebras stutter
The latest casualty was their fellow Italian club Hobart Zebras, as they claimed a 1-0 victory at Buckby Land Rover Park.
City looked up for this contest from the very first whistle, winning all the early challenges and pressing high up the field, not allowing Zebras to play out from the back easily. The early pressure was almost rewarded after 6 minutes, when Williams sent in a free kick from out wide and to the back post, where Mahony was lurking. The Irishman sent his effort towards goal, beating everyone but the crossbar.
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Sublime South smash Strikers
The 2017 League Champions South Hobart provided a perfect demonstration of just why they had the league title wrapped up 3 weeks from the end of the season as they pummelled the third place Devonport Strikers 6-0 on Saturday afternoon. Making it 13 wins in a row, they were utterly dominant, Darcy Hall scoring three times and setting up another on route to the thumping win as Raphael Reynolds saw red and Brayden Mann limped off injured in a tough day for the young Strikers.
South opened the scoring in the 18th minute as Darcy Hall drive from a corner took a deflection off a Strikers defender, into the legs of goalie Thomas Pearce before ballooning up in the air, floating backwards and landing over the heads of the sea of bodies at the back post and into goals.
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Warriors well held by Rangers
In an arm wrestle of a match at Warrior Park on Sunday, Northern Rangers and Olympia shared the spoils as the game ended in a 1-1 draw.
Olympia should have taken the lead in the opening 10 minutes but twice Sam Whatman came up with saves to deny first Jakub Sklenar, then Lucas Hill.
It was Olympia making the running early on but Rangers were proving tough to break and succeeding into turning the game into a scrappy affair, disrupting the Warriors flow with fouls and doing a good job using the dimensions of the pitch to their advantage.
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Palmer guides Clarence off bottom
An 89th minute goal from Paul Palmer gave Clarence United a 1-0 victory over the Kingborough Lions as they climbed off the foot of the table past the Lions into 7th spot. The game appeared destined to end at 0-0 as a 10 man Lions side frustrated the visitors before Palmer pounced on a loose ball in the box and drove home the match winner.
It was an extremely cagey opening to the game with the chances hardly flowing and both sides breaking down in the final third. Kingborough were content to sit back and try force Clarence wide and the game had no real flow to it, with a number of fouls or cheap turnovers killing any semblance of passing rhythm.
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